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For their latest holiday offering, “Carry-On,” Netflix left behind their typical holiday rom-coms and family films in favor of a “Die Hard”-esque action-thriller set in the Los Angeles International Airport. If you’re a Los Angeles local — or if you’ve spent enough time navigating the airport — your immediate reaction to the idea of an action movie set at Lax is “there’s no way they shot that at Lax.” And you would be correct!

So, where was “Carry-On” filmed?

Production actually unfolded far from California, in a decommissioned terminal at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. That way, the production was tucked away from the active parts of the airport (and strict boundaries were created to enforce that separation), but the filmmakers had access to a realistic airport backdrop, including pivotal scenes set on the tarmac — and boy does it look nice to see some action shot practically on location.

All the excessively saccharine Christmas movies that come out during this time had me yearning for films like Die Hard, Home Alone, and Krampus; you know, stories that take the festive mood and turn it into something universally entertaining whilst spreading the word of the Lord and whatnot. Surprisingly enough, Dear Santa of all movies sort of scratched that itch. For starters, instead of having Santa Claus, it brought in a spawn of Satan because a kid misspelled Santa, which is totally relatable. It had some exceptionally great performances from the cast, and while the overall filmmaking left me unsatisfied, the message about being nice in this cynical world kinda got to me. Now, I had made peace with the fact that that’s the best Christmas movie that I was going to get this year. However, right when my sense of hope was about to flicker and die, Jaume Collet-Serra delivered Carry-On,...

Production designer Diane Lederman faced all kinds of pressure in shaping the look of “Russian Doll’s” second season. Not only did she have to take over for Michael Bricker, who won an Emmy for his Season 1 work, but she also had to find locations and design Season 2’s various time periods, including 1940s Budapest, 1960s East Berlin and 1980s New York. “In Budapest, we were shooting two and three locations a day,” says Lederman in an exclusive new interview for Gold Derby, discussing the many challenges she faced. “Our whole time schedule was very compacted.” Watch the full video chat above.

Time travel was the main device for the season, with Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) having the ability to literally step into the shoes of their ancestors. Nadia spends much of her time in the ’80s in the body of her mother, Lenora (Chloë Sevigny), and...

The second season of “Russian Doll” sees Nadia stepping back in time to the 1980s via a subway car. As posters of “Cats” and film “Sophie’s Choice” appear, Nadia glimpses a newspaper. The year is 1982.

Not only does Nadia time travel, but she also finds herself in the body of her pregnant mother, Lenora, aka Nora, played by Chloë Sevigny.

Diane Lederman stepped in as production designer, taking over from Michael Bricker, to build the ’80s world, including Lenora’s pink apartment.

Lederman was inspired by a 1986 film directed by David Lynch. “The look of Season 2 is influenced by many films and auteurs of ’70s and ’80s cinema, David Lynch being an important one,” she says. “While searching for a hook for this set, I happened to rewatch ‘Blue Velvet.’ That apartment in that film is iconically 1980s, without being overly kitsch, a perfect reference for our period styling.”

In...

For her film Coda, filmmaker Siân Heder found that delving deep into the cultural differences between the deaf and hearing communities to be wildly informative in creating a fresh cinematic experience.

“I was very excited kind of by the specificity and yet the universality of the story,” Heder said during the Apple Original Films panel Saturday at Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York, where she was joined by production designer Diane Lederman. Heder noted that that precious few film as detailed as Coda‘s exploration of the dynamics of deaf culture had been made since 1986’s Children of a Lesser God, and that it was necessary to have deaf collaborators in front of and behind the camera.

Along with cast members including Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur, Heder noted, “I had two [American Sign Language] masters, Ann [Tomasetti] and Alexandria [Wailes], who worked with me on the translation of the script, but then also as really deaf eyes on set…...

Taking place on a Thursday morning in late October at the Gutstein Gallery (or online for pass-holders who didn’t care to brave the rain), the Wonder Women: Below the Line panel at this year’s Scad Savannah Film Festival (October 23-30) felt like a breath of fresh air. Moderated by Variety’s Jazz Tangcay, the participants included talent agent June Dowad, editor Pamela Martin, and production designers Diane Lederman and Ina Mayhew: All fiercely self-assured, middle-aged women with a wealth of […]

The post The Scad Savannah Film Festival presents Wonder Women: Below the Line first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

As I pressed play on the first episode of “Run the World,” I wasn’t intending to mainline the entire eight-episode season in one greedy gulp. But as a blessedly rare warm New York City breeze floated through my open window, Leigh Davenport’s lush new series about four friends having a vivid, game-changing Harlem summer proved too good and fitting to resist.

“Run the World,” premiering May 16 on Starz, is immediately self-aware of its place in the TV canon, particularly as a witty dramedy about four thirty-something women falling in and out of love and lust in New York. In the pilot, frustrated writer Ella (Andrea Bordeaux) fondly refers to her on and off boyfriend Anderson (Nick Sagar) as her “Big,” as in the infamous “Mr. Big” who drove Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw so wild throughout “Sex and the City.” But on “Run the World,” Ella’s...

Amazon Prime Video is once again renting out the Hollywood Athletic Club for much of April to continue its Emmy “For Your Consideration” campaign. Dubbed the “Prime Experience,” the display and series of events take place from April 12 to 27. Among the events: screenings with the cast and creators of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams” for TV Academy members, as well as themed evenings open to the general public.

This is the second year that Amazon has taken over the space to create themed rooms throughout the historic building. This time, interactive, themed rooms include the world of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” where, per Amazon, “attendees will be able to travel back to 1958 New York City through the eyes of Midge Maisel. As they enter her apartment, they’ll experience a unique ‘magic mirror’ where they can interact with the show. From there, they’ll...

13 Reasons Why Production Designer Diane Lederman talks to Awards Daily about visualizing the world created by Jay Asher’s beloved novel. Diane Lederman, like the rest of the cast and crew,...

Whether production designer Diane Lederman is tasked with recreating a room from a specific era — like she did on FX’s The Americans — or a contemporary teenager’s bedroom — like she does several times over in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, there’s one constant: “I do extensive amounts of research,” she tells TVLine.

So when it came to creating bedrooms for Hannah, Clay and the rest of the Liberty High crowd, not to mention public spaces like Monet’s cafe and the Bakers’ drugstore, Lederman enlisted all the help she could get — including the series’ young castmembers themselves.

RelatedReport: 13 Reasons...

We chat with the show’s production designer about everything from ‘The Leftovers’ to Andy Warhol.

Brian Yorkey’s 13 Reasons Why begins in a high school hallway but doesn’t stay there. Its branches can be felt in every inch of the Northern California suburban town. Adapting Jay Asher’s bestselling Thirteen Reasons Why into a 13-episode series that Netflix dropped last weekend, the series explores the world surrounding Hannah, a teenager (Katherine Langford) who kills herself, and Clay (Dylan Minnette), a friend whose relationship to the deceased is among the show’s central ambiguities.

To some, framing what feels like a Twin Peaks-esque murder-mystery around an issue like suicide comes off as dangerous. Hank Stuever, of the Washington Post, called it “an especially cruel experience.” But suicide, the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 24, has long been a fixture in teen literature, from Sharon Draper’s award-winner Tears of a Tiger...

The Academy has announced the new class of invited members for 2014 and, as is typical, many of which are among last year's nominees, which includes Barkhad Abdi, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb in the Actors branch not to mention curious additions such as Josh Hutcherson, Rob Riggle and Jason Statham, but, okay. The Directors branch adds Jay and Mark Duplass along with Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve and Thomas Vinterberg. I didn't do an immediate tally of male to female additions or other demographics, but at first glance it seems to be a wide spread batch of new additions on all fronts. The Academy is also clearly attempting to aggressively bump up the demographics as this is the second year in a row where they have added a large number of new members, well over the average of 133 new members from 2004 to 2012. As far as...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.

Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.

“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”

The 2014 invitees are:

Actors

Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”

Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”

Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”

Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”

Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”

Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”

Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...

Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave were two of the 271 artists and industry leaders invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which determines nominations and winners at the annual Oscars. The entire list of Academy membership—which numbers about 6,000—isn’t public information so the annual invitation list is often the best indication of the artists involved in the prestigious awards process. It’s worth noting that invitations need to be accepted in order for artists to become members; some artists, like two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, have declined membership over the years.

Pop quiz: What do Chris Rock, Claire Denis, Eddie Vedder and Josh Hutcherson all have in common? Answer: They could all be Oscar voters very soon. The annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invitation list always makes for interesting reading, shedding light on just how large and far-reaching the group's membership is -- or could be, depending on who accepts their invitations. This year, 271 individuals have been asked to join AMPAS, meaning every one of them could contribute to next year's Academy Awards balloting -- and it's as diverse a list as they've ever assembled. Think the Academy consists entirely of fusty retired white dudes? Not if recent Best Original Song nominee Pharrell Williams takes them up on their offer. Think it's all just a Hollywood insiders' game? Not if French arthouse titans Chantal Akerman and Olivier Assayas join the party. It's a list that subverts expectation at every turn.

The International Press Academy has announced its nominations for the 18th annual Satellite Awards and Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity," David O. Russell's "American Hustle," and Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" led the pack.

Winners will be announced on March 9, 2014 at a ceremony in Los Angeles. Here's the complete nominations:

Motion Pictures

Actress in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams American Hustle (Sony)

Cate Blanchett Blue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics)

Sandra Bullock Gravity (Warner Bros.)

Judi Dench Philomena (The Weinstein Company)

Adèle Exarchopoulos Blue Is the Warmest Color (Sundance)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Enough Said (Fox Searchlight)

Meryl Streep August: Osage County (The Weinstein Company)

Emma Thompson Saving Mr. Banks (Disney)

Actor in a Motion Picture

Christian Bale American Hustle (Sony)

Bruce Dern Nebraska (Paramount)

Leonardo DiCaprio The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount)

Chiwetel Ejiofor 12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight)

Tom Hanks Captain Phillips (Sony)

Matthew McConaughey Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features...

12 Years a Slave continues to be the leader in the clubhouse when it comes to nominations. After leading the Spirit Award nominations it now leads the International Press Academy's (Ipa) 2013 Satellite Award nominations with a total of ten noms, followed by American Hustle and Gravity, each with eight nominations. The top five nominees were rounded out by Rush with seven nominations and Inside Llewyn Davis and Saving Mr. Banks with six nominations each. The Satellites, however, are an interesting bunch. As you can see there are several nominations in each category, leaving pretty much no stone unturned. I guess you could say no nomination for Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station) is a surprise and, in my personal opinion, with such a large field of nominees I'd like to see Joaquin Phoenix (Her) get a nomination, but that certainly isn't going to be a film for everyone even though Arcade Fire was...